Job Opportunity Dilemma: Love Location or Love Cash. WWYD?

[Michael_ Gee]

Chest pains at the current job tonight. Again.

Three reporters had so many mistakes in their scripts that we had to kill their stories.

Sheesh.

(Decision made.)

I read the first post in this thread and knew you'd come to the right decision. Now I'm at the last post and you did. Congratulations on your new job.

 

[LanceyHoward]

Because I respect quite a few of you.

Decision time.

Current: I LOVE where I live. But I hate my workplace. Have a day each month where I have chest pains at work. No longer anchoring, now running the newsroom and took a 20k pay cut. (It was that or be fired). Unsure if we'll even be "open" in two or three years because of having other nearby stations just doing the work for us. Again, I love the location. I don't take vacations because, well, living here is like vacation.

Opportunity: Boring market BUT the people watch. Anchoring again. No beaches. No mountains. But the compensation would be what it was when I moved to current job — I'd get the 20k back. Rental house would be about 7% of my monthly income. Dirt cheap to live. Pretty sure this place will still be doing news in 20 years. Instead of buying and trying to sell later, I plan to just live cheap and build up cash to invest during the next recession in either real estate or stocks. Oh… and legal sports betting. Haha.

Everyone in my life says take the opportunity. In a decade, I'll be 60. At that point, hoping to have built up enough abundance to truly do what I want.

JFC, now that I write this out, I take the opportunity. I'll hang up and listen.

Got a week to decide. Also, no debt and kids are outta the house. Just me.

(Seriously, thank you).

If you are going to pay seven percent of your income as rent for your house and rent is $1,500 a month then you would make a quarter million a year. I think in today's local news market that is really good money and you should grab it. .

 

[exmediahack]

If you are going to pay seven percent of your income as rent for your house and rent is $1,500 a month then you would make a quarter million a year. I think in today's local news market taht is really good money and you should grab it. .

It's not that much… but it'll pay for everything and then some.

 

[justgladtobehere]

And the town gets saved by a bake sale slash danceoff.

Yeah. There has to be some seasonal or special event tag.

The new love is the parent or teacher he meets covering a story.

 

[As The Crow Flies]

I've lived in cities that have great weather and shipty weather. I've lived in cities that are tourist destinations and others that are in the middle of nowhere.

If you've got some friends and the work situation is solid, those are the most important things. Good luck!

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Yeah. There has to be some seasonal or special event tag.

The new love is the parent or teacher he meets covering a story.

If it's a Hallmark film, there's always a dog involved too.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Oh, and as for advice, I'll quote that noted philosopher Biff Tannen:

Make like a tree, and get outta there.

 

[Octave]

The journo in Hallmark films lives in some of the nicest digs in town and has time to cook and do crossword puzzles.

I got the formula by the azz because I've sat through about eleventy billion of these films.

 

[Dog8Cats]

I guess I'm in the minority. Having lived in a place I hated at a job that was pretty fulfilling, and now living in a pretty desirable place but working at nowhere near my dream job, I'll much rather take the latter, and would suggest you consider doing the same.

I think I know the answer to this, but can you dial down your commitment to your current job, so that clusterforks out of your hands don't affect your physical or mental health? Could you lateral to a tolerable job in the area you now live?

Of course, staying put doesn't solve what seems like an inevitable walk-the-plank moment in your current position.

As for gambling, can you mask your location with a VPN?

 

[exmediahack]

I guess I'm in the minority. Having lived in a place I hated at a job that was pretty fulfilling, and now living in a pretty desirable place but working at nowhere near my dream job, I'll much rather take the latter, and would suggest you consider doing the same.

I think I know the answer to this, but can you dial down your commitment to your current job, so that clusterforks out of your hands don't affect your physical or mental health? Could you lateral to a tolerable job in the area you now live?

Of course, staying put doesn't solve what seems like an inevitable walk-the-plank moment in your current position.

As for gambling, can you mask your location with a VPN?

All good points.

In June, when I learned I would be moved from the anchor desk into management, I sent out applications all over the area for higher-end jobs that I figured I could transition into.

0-for-84. 46 were local. 38 were remote jobs.

Humbling. Eye-opening. Discouraging. I didn't mind taking another pay cut to stay but I wasn't going to walk away and work for peanuts.

Somewhere around late October, I tried that approach of dialing it back a little. Every day I came in with a plan for the day at 1 pm (I work through the late news).

By 5 pm, every day, it was blown to bits.

Ultimately, we are told that we're being judged by how good our reporter content is.

Last night at 9, I have one reporter who doesn't understand her story — so much so that we had to kill the story as she went to the wrong TOWN and started recording her standups about what she thought had happened.

Then I have my boss calling me at that moment, asking why this reporter doesn't have a story and that I need to check on her more throughout the day.

Someone else ashigned her the story at 10 am. I have to stay on top of 7 reporters each day/night, fix all their scripting mistakes, do their digital and track each story to review with them every 2 weeks. (We're not even a small market…)

There are too many "what has happened to my career?" moments since the new ashignment.

The only place where I get more interest than before… yup, TV news. Weirdly, every manager outside of my company is sympathetic to my plight and even giving me credit for not leaving.

TV news is like porn. We all start out with big dreams. Some of us make it to stardom, fame and Ferraris. Some of us get out by 28. Others - like myself - get by at age 50 by doing gangbangs with ugly fans who win contests.

In other words, I am definitely in the Diggler-on-the-couch stage with the firecrackers going off, wondering "what the hell happened to my career?"

 

[Azrael]

wondering "what the hell happened to my career?"

Good morning, my friend. I think at this point it's pretty obvious you need to pursue the other opportunity.

That said, I've been laying back, waiting to ask this: what are your ambitions? And what were they when you started out?

Maybe that's where the answer to this question can be found.

Because after the new opportunity, what then? You're still young in the general run of things, and in the TV news calculus of looks and skills you're just reaching your peak as an anchor.

I'm fifteen years farther down the track than you are, but at 50 I was still pushing hard to get to the next level. Not necessarily the next level of the business - although that's always a consideration - but the next level of my own potential. What can I do? How far can I go? How high can I reach?

Turns out a career is mostly the series of questions we ask ourselves - and the answers we find.

Family and retirement planning and "lifestyle" geography are all important. But they won't entirely paper over a nagging suspicion you might have reached higher or gone farther or been happier.

So maybe it's worth a couple hours of remembering what you wanted for and from yourself 25 years ago.

DM me if you want to kick around specifics.

In any case, I enclose my warmest thoughts for your continuing health and happiness.

Go get 'em, brother.

 

[exmediahack]

Az— brilliant outlook. I needed to hear that.

What this opportunity gives me, as I thought about it driving home last night, is the chance to "design a life". It's a great place where my work will matter again.

So the non-TV world didn't want me.

But I've never been "more in demand" in the TV news world. So I'll keep leaning into that.

It's time to keep working my ash off but, as it was for many years, for my efforts to matter again — to make an impact.